Lac-Mégantic rail bypass to be assessed by transportation agency

The Lac-Mégantic rail bypass project is taking a new step forward by moving into the assessment phase, the federal government announced on Saturday. 

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon announced in a press release that the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has received the rail operator’s formal request, allowing the project to move into this new phase. 

The application submitted includes environmental studies, consultation reports and a well monitoring plan, states the Transport Canada press release. 

“We will be removing the railway from downtown Lac-Mégantic. The bypass project is becoming increasingly concrete, now that the project application has been officially filed with the Canadian Transportation Agency. The CTA now has all the information it needs to assess the project and begin the public consultation process,”  MacKinnon stated in the same document. 

Transport Canada reports that construction of the bypass will begin once regulatory approvals have been obtained, including those from the CTA. 

The Lac-Mégantic bypass project in the Eastern Townships has been a major concern since the rail accident that hit the town in 2013. In the early morning of July 6, 2013, a train carrying 72 oil tanker cars derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people. 

Much of the municipality’s city center was destroyed and around 2,000 people had to be evacuated. 

The bypass will be 12.5 kilometers long, according to the federal government’s website. The route chosen, announced in 2018, “allows the railway right-of-way to be removed from downtown Lac-Mégantic and reduces the number of buildings near the railway,” the federal government states. 

Once the bypass is built, the existing railway line will be dismantled. If necessary, the acquired land will be decontaminated and then transferred to the municipalities of Frontenac, Lac-Mégantic and Nantes. 

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews